Bernie Worrell

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Alternative Title:
George Bernard Worrell

Bernie Worrell, (George Bernard Worrell), American keyboardist (born April 19, 1944, Long Branch, N.J.—died June 24, 2016, Everson, Wash.), created an eclectic array of musical tones and textures on a variety of keyboards and synthesizers and contributed defining sounds to the music of Parliament-Funkadelic during the 1970s and to art-rock band Talking Heads in the 1980s. He composed the iconic staccato bass line of the Parliament song “Flash Light” (1978) by using three connected Minimoog synthesizers. Worrell began studying piano at the age of three and continued his education in classical music throughout his childhood and adolescence. He graduated (1967) from the New England Conservatory of Music. While in college, he began playing in local rhythm-and-blues bands, and he became acquainted with George Clinton, the founder and mastermind of Parliament-Funkadelic. Worrell soon became the bandleader, arranger, and keyboardist for Clinton’s musical collective. He contributed to the Funkadelic album Free Your Mind…and Your Ass Will Follow (1970) and thereafter was an integral part of the group. He provided structure as well as keyboard wizardry, notably on the Parliament album Mothership Connection (1975), with its singles “Mothership Connection (Star Child),” “Supergroovalisticprosifunkstication,” and “Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof off the Sucker),” and on the Funkadelic LP One Nation Under a Groove (1978). Worrell released his first solo album, All the Woo in the World, in 1978. He performed on the Talking Heads album Speaking in Tongues (1983) and elevated the band’s concert film and sound track Stop Making Sense (1984). In addition, he made unique contributions to projects by such musical acts as Keith Richards, the Pretenders, and Bootsy’s Rubber Band. Worrell also put out several solo LPs, notably Funk of Ages (1991) and Blacktronic Science (1993). Worrell was inducted in 1997 into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Parliament-Funkadelic.